Gliding through Rivers
by Juniper11
Summary: It's small things that can make your viewpoint of a person change.
1. Gliding Through Rivers

The day started like any other day with the sun filtering through her windows and rousing her from her slumber. Her body had an internal time clock that woke her up each morning. She hated it and wished she could destroy it sometimes, but since she'd only end up hurting herself in the process she decided to let the vice go.

Sakura cracked open an eye and glanced out the window not really wanting to get up but knowing she didn't have a choice. She then disentangled herself from her blankets—she didn't know how they always managed to bunch up around her legs—and moved to the bathroom to start her morning routine.

She had just finished strapping on her ninja gear when a knock resounded on her door. Sakura's brow furrowed as she wondered who would be visiting her so early in the morning. With a sigh she moved toward the door expecting to be called in on some emergency surgery that would end with her missing practice—again. She found herself almost pleasantly surprised to open the door to see dark eyes and a pale face.

"Sai, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on your way to the training grounds?"

Sai inclined his head slightly. "I have a mission and have been unable to locate Kakashi to inform him. Will you do so for me?" He then proceeded to smile at her and while that smile was not as creepily false as it was in her youth it was still enough to irritate her slightly.

"Sure." Sakura muttered. Sai nodded his head and was gone without a goodbye. Sakura just shook her head and went to grab her keys before she left her apartment as well.

The walk to the training grounds was an unusually quite one. She was used to seeing one or two people that she knew along the way but not this particular day. She didn't mind it. It gave her time to get lost in her thoughts, plan out the rest of her day, and simply enjoy _being. _

Before she knew it she had reached the training grounds only to have her heart stop suddenly. She blinked several times because she wasn't quite sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing—and what she was seeing was Hatake Kakashi at the training grounds…early.

Her mouth fell open on its own accord and suddenly she knew why Sai couldn't find Kakashi. The last place he'd ever think to check for Kakashi was at the place he was actually supposed to be—because that would just be silly.

Sakura shook her head slowly and forced herself to move forward. She realized that Naruto wasn't around either. Sakura blinked in surprise once more. While Kakashi was perpetually late Naruto had taken to being perpetually early. Naruto had been working on some new jutsu that he wouldn't let anyone know about. It scared her that he was working alone on it because Naruto was unpredictable, and he might just accidentally kill himself. While she would never admit it out loud, a world without Naruto just wouldn't be nearly as bright.

As she drew closer to Kakashi, she realized that either he hadn't realized she was there or he was ignoring her presence. She decided to take a seat on the grass and study his movements. He was practicing something that looked similar to taijutsu. But there were minute differences Sakura picked out as Kakashi flowed through each motion. His movements were elegant, graceful, and deadly.

Sakura found that she couldn't quite tear her eyes off him.

He wasn't fighting a clone. His movements were precise and careful, beating off an enemy only he could see.

Kakashi had stripped down to his standard-issued black pants and a thin sheen of perspiration covered his chest. He glistened in the sunlight. His well defined arms darted out to strike the opponent that wasn't there with a speed that she could barely keep track of. His leg thereafter executed a perfect butterfly kick and Sakura briefly flirted with the idea of clapping. She was just about to bring her hands up when Kakashi's droll voice cut through the silence between them.

"Are you going to sit there all day, Sakura, or are you actually going to train?"

He didn't stop moving, and Sakura was flooded with infinite grateful for the Fates because he certainly would have seen the blush that stained her cheeks if he had.

Of course she had come to train. Why else would she be there?

Sakura slowly rose to her feet and dusted off her backside before mumbling that she was going to run some laps. Kakashi grunted a reply and Sakura dashed off without another word.

Three laps into her run, Sakura realized that Naruto still hadn't shown up yet and she had forgotten to tell Kakashi about Sai's mission. A glance in Kakashi's direction revealed that he still hadn't stopped his "taijutsu" routine. Sakura was suddenly struck with an idea. She wanted to join him. The way he was moving seemed almost like a dance—a deadly one and she wanted to learn it. She didn't know if her sudden lust for learning was born from simply her hunger to learn or just for a chance to be closer to the teacher of such a dance. Another three laps passed before Sakura's curiosity got the best of her, and she moved towards her former sensei.

As she walked over to him, she ran her fingers through her hair briefly pushing one side back behind her ear. She was seriously wishing she had thought to tie her hair in something before she left. She didn't dwell too heavily on the thought though, hindsight being what it was.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked. She was surprised when Kakashi's movements stopped completely. He turned to face her. His single eye glanced at her briefly, surveying her calmly.

"Hm. It took you longer to ask than what I thought it would." He said with exaggerated thoughtfulness lacing his voice.

Sakura opened her mouth to let out some sarcastic comment but stopped herself. She knew Kakashi well enough to acknowledge his art of avoidance. The more sarcastic she got, the more cryptic _he_ got. Instead, she just shrugged and looked at him expectantly.

"We're going on a mission in three weeks."

Sakura frowned at her question not being answered but nodded her head. "Where are we going?"

"Not exactly sure. The fact is that the Hokage was slightly considering giving this mission to another team. I convinced her to change her mind."

"Why?" Insecurity surged through Sakura as she worried that the Hokage might not think her or her team capable. "What type of mission is it?"

"Assassination mission." Sakura's lips pursed with indignation. Her team, better than any other, would be able to handle an assassination mission.

"And she'd pass us over because…?"

The words that left her mouth weren't even a question, but more of a questioning demand. Kakashi smiled at the irritation in Sakura's voice. . It spoke of a confidence that she had in their team that pleased Kakashi more than she would ever know. "Because of what else we have to do."

Sakura was seconds away from telling him to just spit it out already. But she knew he was probably getting some type of weird kick out of prolonging her torment.

She decided to change tactics.

As she brought her hands up and began to crack her knuckles, as an ominous air surrounded her. Her ploy seemed to do the trick because as soon as ten loud pops punctuated the air, words began to spill from his mouth like coins from a slot machine.

"Our target is an arms dealer with a passion for theater and dance. Oftentimes, after a show, he likes to converse with the actors. Some say he likes to go over lines with them in private." Kakashi chuckled humorously. His face was solemn as he looked on at her. "And have a private play of his own."

Sakura paused for a moment, uncertain. "Was there some kind of innuendo in that statement?"

"Perhaps."

Sakura had the feeling that if she could see the full grin that was curling at the edges of his lip, she'd be itching to wipe it off. As it was, it took patience that she didn't even know she had to keep from knocking him clear across the training grounds. Sometimes, less was more. When you used your fists too much, people began to like it, so it was best to save them for special occasions.

"What did he do to warrant being taken out?"

"He profited a great deal off the war and his finances took a deep plummet once Madara was dealt with and peace was established. The fact that the Five Great Shinobi Nations have developed something of peace treaty and there's a generally trusting air between everyone doesn't seem to be improving his mood."

Sakura nodded her head. She figured someone like their target was bound to pop up once the peace between the Nations was established.

"Okay, so what does that have to do with why another team was being considered?"

"Well, we have a choice as to how we perform the mission. Tsunade thinks that we should take the most obvious, most direct route."

"Which is?"

"In a few weeks we know he'll be in the Waterfall at a play called _Kanadehon Chushingura. _We can knock out a few people replace them with ourselves and perform the play in their stead."

Sakura's brow furrowed as she thought about it. A lot of work would be required to learn the play. Work that she wasn't sure some of her teammates would be putting effort into. It wasn't that she didn't think they could pull it off; she just got the feeling that their execution would be…flawed.

"Why can't we just knock them out after the play and then pretend to be them?"

"Not an option. It's very well known in the theater world that he is often invited onstage directly after a performance. There wouldn't be enough time for such a switch. Well, there might be, but it would be too risky."

"But—wait did you just say _Kanadehon Chushingura_?"

"I did."

"Isn't that Kabuki?"

"It is." Kakashi confirmed.

Kakashi watched steadily as a myriad of expressions flickered through Sakura's face. It intrigued him why she would go through so many emotions at one time but before he could ask she said, "What's our other option?"

"That is what I was practicing—our other option."

"So you vetoed the Kabuki already."

Kakashi slightly nodded his head. "Yes. Naruto doesn't have the…finesse it would take to accomplish such a mission. Also since it will be Sasuke's first mission after his probation it didn't seem the wisest of options."

"Sasuke's first mission?" A cold hard knot of dread formed in her stomach. "What about Sai?"

"The Hokage said that this would probably be a good time to ease him in since she's sending Sai on another mission. He should be leaving today and I'm not sure he'll make it back in time. Besides, Sai and Sasuke don't seem to get along very well."

Sakura chose to ignore the statement about Sasuke and Sai's lack of relationship and focused on another statement he'd made. "Ah, so you knew about that already. Sai asked me to inform you of his whereabouts. He couldn't find you since you were where you were supposed to be for once." Kakashi smiled but didn't rely. "Okay then where's Naruto? Where's Sasuke?"

"I will be training you all separately for this first week and a half. Later I will bring you altogether."

Sakura nodded finding that acceptable for several reasons. "So what is it that we will be doing instead?"

"An ancient shinobi art that resembles dance but is not."

Sakura's mind went over the moves that she saw Kakashi doing when she first arrived at the training grounds. "What is it called?"

"It has no name but it is similar to Kenbu."

"Sword dancing? Kakashi…maybe we should let this mission pass."

"Sakura, do you trust me?"

Did she trust him? Did she trust this old, crazy, perverted man who she secretly suspected had suicidal tendencies? Well, that is, if you took into consideration how much he enjoyed annoying her knowing that his life was in her hands more often than not.

Sakura sighed before replying with a, "Yes."

"Then let's begin."

* * *

><p>She wasn't used to 'in depth' training with Kakashi. It wasn't that he never taught her anything. That wasn't the case by any means. It was just that she wasn't used to having the man's undivided attention. It was disconcerting—especially now that she was older. There was something about the way that lone eye bored into hers when he was explaining something that set her on edge.<p>

He talked to her explained to her every little detail—which in and of itself was unusual. She had always taken him for a 'figure it out yourself' type of guy and to a degree it he still was. It was just when she did something wrong….

"Your form is wrong Sakura. Like this." Kakashi moved behind her and adjusted her legs. His hands brushed against her bare calf. His hands didn't linger but still the feeling was odd. It was as if for some reason she expected something more but she had no idea what it could be she was expecting. He was training her—even if she was starting to think that it was an exercise in futility but something was missing. "Now extend your arms and let them sway to the left while quickly performing the modified version of ram, hare, and monkey sign." Sakura sighed. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't a sadistic trainer. Tsunade had shown no qualms about beating the hell out of her whenever she did the slightest thing wrong. Such was not the case with Kakashi. He did laugh when on the off occasion she fell flat on her ass, but even that did nothing but make her feel funny was well. The whole situation was doing nothing but frustrating her to a degree where she was ready to start breaking stuff—or people, whichever.

"Kakashi, what is this supposed to do?" Sakura ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation. "Give me something to work with so at least know what I'm aiming for."

"Um, success?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed and for a moment or two she suspected that _he _didn't know what the jutsu was supposed to do. Then he totally proved her wrong.

* * *

><p><strong>This is Part One of the story for the KakaSaku LJ Chunin Contest. Part II and III will be written by one of my teammates and as soon as I find out where they're going to post it I'll let you know. <strong>


	2. Falling Up Valleys

**Title: Falling Up Valleys**

**Rating: T**

**Author: silentdictator**

**Team: Kakashi's Angels**

_**Finale**_

* * *

><p>Kakashi walks home with semi-sore muscles and a missing shirt sleeve.<p>

His right arm is bare from the elbow down, and he has a creeping suspicion that people are staring at his bare forearm. He rarely shows this much skin, and he is embarrassed. Luckily, his trusty mask hides his blush from prying eyes.

Kakashi shoves both his hands into his pockets in a poor attempt at hiding his embarrassment and lopes towards home.

But the way she had moved and the whisper of his own words in the wind still haunts him.

"A shinobi dance…that is a dance, but not."

Kakashi wants to shake his head like a dog in an attempt to dislodge fear like droplets of water.

He could almost feel the waves of death that had rolled off of Sakura, even so many hours later.

"Like this?" She had asked when she had taken a step forward, rolled her hips hesitantly, and stepped back.

Her hesitance had only made the image she presented that much more enticing. The set glint of grim determination helped too.

* * *

><p>Kakashi continues to wander home with an ambling gait. His head is down, and his hair is not at its usual jaunty angle, when he happens upon a book store still open at the late hour.<p>

He hums a question to himself, cocks his head to one-side to eye the shelves inside the store, shrugs helpless to whatever deity that may be watching over him, and opens the door into the book store.

A cheerful bell rings.

The sound takes his mind back to that morning, even while his legs direct him towards the erotica section of the bookstore.

Some habits die hard.

* * *

><p>Sakura lifted her chin and arched her back. She then lifted one hand into the air above her, as she tried to manipulate the fan in her other hand extended out to her side in a graceful manner.<p>

The fan had bells that were to chime whenever she flicked her wrist just so. There would be no music when they were to perform. She would only have the bells on her fan and they would have only the rhythm of his footsteps to dictate the beat.

"Okay, walk me through how this goes again."

Kakashi raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"You know what I mean!"

"No. I don't."

Sakura snorted and crossed her arms in frustration. She looked up at the sky for a moment, and Kakashi caught his own eyes lingering on the line of her throat, the curve of her collarbone.

"Fine. Just show me the whole damn thing again." Sakura almost looked like she's pouting and a smirk crept onto Kakashi's face before he knew it.

"My part? Or your part?"

"Don't be coy with me. You're just being intentionally difficult, _sensei_."

"And now you're just being a brat."

"Not as much as you are!"

Kakashi couldn't stick out his tongue, but Sakura could and she fully utilizes her ability to do just that.

He glanced at the red of her lips clashing with the candy-pink of her tongue and swallowed. An image flashes through his brain that he couldn't-or wouldn't focus on clearly.

"At least I'm not old like you are either."

Kakashi heaved a dramatic sigh and wheezed in a mocking way. His voice crackled as he replied.

"Respect your elders!"

She gave him a look that could have meant either 'your old man impression is unconvincing' or 'your come back was sub-par'.

Kakashi just shrugged and began to go through each movement of Sakura's part as carefully as he could.

He could almost feel sunburn spreading across his back, and he almost regretted taking off his shirt to practice. The early morning sun hadn't felt so terrible, but his skin was sensitive in the late morning light. If it weren't for the steady weight of Sakura's gaze, he might have even put his shirt back on.

As it was, her critical eye made his skin prickle as he slid arched an arm over his head and slipped into a low stance, before sweeping a leg across the ground. He straightened and delicately caressed the air. The shinobi dance was a careful dance that was not a dance at all. It was made to fool strangers with its seemingly effortless grace. There were usually knives or weapons that were anything but decorative to incorporate into the choreography.

That was where Sakura's fan came in.

Kakashi would have to make do with his bare hands (and his thousand jutsu).

Sakura laughed and clapped when Kakashi finished. Strands of her loose hair slid across her cheeks, and the sound of her laugh almost seemed to stick in the air long after she stopped. Her green eyes scrunched up at him in amusement.

"I think _you_ would be more suited to perform my part, Kakashi-sensei."

She placed extra emphasis his name, and for some reason Kakashi felt rather hot under the mild mid-morning sun.

Her hair smelled like sweat, and some sort of sweet, synthetic fragrance that was probably found in her soap.

Kakashi curved his body down and ghosted a hand down Sakura's side as she took a step forward, rolled her hips carefully, and stepped back.

They slipped away from each other as quickly and as quietly as shadows. They spun and moved a theater stage length apart.

He felt a warm burn in his muscles as he moved his arms in a deceptively slow fashion before he slid into the proper stance and delivered a flying kick. He could hear a whoosh of breath come from Sakura as she did some of the aerial gymnastics her part of the dance required and the faint jingle of the bells on her fan.

With a few heavy steps to compliment her rhythm, Kakashi moved back to the middle of the field just as Sakura moved back with theatrically reluctant motions.

She slipped a hand onto his shoulder and flicked her fan in a steady rhythm.

Her pupils were small in the light of the noon sun and the green of her eyes looked as deep and clear as panes and panes cut glass stacked atop each other.

Kakashi felt a burn in his chest, and wondered if he had pulled something a few steps back.

* * *

><p>Kakashi heads home with two new novels under his arm.<p>

When he finishes preparing dinner and sits down with one of his new books open on his dinner table and a luke-warm bowl of ramen in front of him, he begins to read and eat.

The dialogue is stunted and awkward. The characters seem flat and the definition of them dimensionless. He reads and reads and he finds hope in the description of the settings and minor characters, but by the time he is half way through the shoddy romance and the awkward make-out scenes have him pushing away the book in disgust.

And to think, it had had such a great title too.

The book had nothing on the Icha Icha series. Not even close.

* * *

><p>Sakura has never felt so icky in her entire life. She is certain that she has never sweated so hard or so much. She understood now why Kakashi had been drenched with sweat when she first saw him.<p>

Sakura passes Ichiraku on the way home. A glance inside the ramen stand reveals Naruto and Sasuke. She makes an attempt to walk by quickly but, for once, she isn't able to escape Naruto undetected.

_"Sakura-chan!" _

She flinches slightly at the shrill shout of her name and makes an effort to walk away speedily, but Naruto jumps out of his chair and drags her inside insisting that she eat with them. She wants to ague, but she is too tired to put up much of an argument. It would be easier to order a bowl of ramen, chow down, and then leave. Hopefully, the two of them would pay for her meal, since they were the ones who had coerced her into eating in the first place.

"You don't look so good." Naruto says after studying her for a minute or two. Sakura tries to hold back, but she couldn't stop her hand from flying up and hitting Naruto in the back of the head.

"I've been training!" Sakura snarls. She immediately regrets moving so quickly since her body had just began to protest against her sudden movements.

"Ah, Kakashi's freaky training session." Naruto continues as if she hadn't hit him at all. "I really think they should give this mission to someone else."

Sakura blinks in surprise. "Why?"

Sasuke finally pipes up to answer her question.

"We're ninja."

"And ninjas don't dance." Naruto adds.

"But it's not a dance. It's an incredibly deadly and technical shinobi art. And since when did the two of you finish each other's sentences?"

Naruto squawks indignantly and shoves Sasuke to the ground before turning to look Sakura in the eye quite gravely.

"That's what they want you to believe." Naruto says somewhat ominously. Though she doesn't want to, Sakura finds that she can't fight back the chuckle clawing its way up her throat. The sight of Naruto's serious face and Sasuke's harassed looking hair was enough to make anyone crack a smile.

"I think it's a great skill for any shinobi to have under their belt. You'd think you'd be happy to learn something new." Sakura says lightly.

"Not that stuff. Heey, you like all this dancing stuff don't you Sakura-chan? Why don't you just go and convince Kakashi that it should just be you two who go on this mission? You guys don't really need us for something like this. And Sasuke and I are too manly for such a prissy mission. We leave this kind of girly stuff to Kakashi."

Naruto winks saucily and Sakura gives him a skeptical look.

Then she takes a quiet moment of contemplation. In all honesty she would rather not go on a mission like this with Sasuke. The thought of working with him again makes her nervous. She isn't sure she trusted him to act accordingly in such a sensitive situation.

"Does Naruto speak for you as well Sasuke?"

Sasuke doesn't reply.

"Well?" Sakura prompts. She is no mind reader.

"I am required on this mission." Sasuke answers stoically. He put up a hand to his hair in an attempt to make it a bit neater. Sakura sighs inwardly.

Sakura walks home alone after insisting to Naruto that she doesn't need to be walked home—especially since she knew that if she did mention that she wanted someone to walk her home, Naruto would practically throw Sasuke into her arms. Not only would she be angry she would have been embarrassed as well.

And this way, the two of them can pay for her meal.

Oddly enough, as she makes her way home, the meal fades from her mind as she mentally goes over the moves that she had practiced earlier that day. She walks home in something like a trance when, all of a sudden, she feels something hit her head.

"Ow! What the hell?"

Sakura looks down at the ground to see what hit her only to find a book had fallen from the sky. She leans down, picks it up, and then looks up to see a light on in an apartment above her.

"Watch it, you jerk wad!" Sakura yells at the open window, shaking the book in her hand and seriously contemplates throwing it right back where it came from.

* * *

><p>Kakashi has strange dreams sometimes. In this particular dream, he and Sakura are sitting in a meadow and there are bright, blue flowers in such an electric shade as to be unnatural circling all around them.<p>

He doesn't hear what comes out of his own mouth, but Sakura immediately retorts, "I'm funny. And you love me."

"Uh…no. You're not even remotely funny."

Sakura scrunches up her face and shoots back quickly, "Oh yeah? Well you're old, corrupt, and suicidal."

"Don't make cracks at my age when you're practically an Elder yourself. And suicidal is a misnomer. I just enjoy taking risks."

"This conversation isn't the least bit witty or interesting. And you failed to deny 'corrupt'."

"I thought you said you were funny, Sakura. Go and _make_ this conversation interesting."

"Being funny and making things interesting are two different things."

"No, it's easy. You just have to find the right people that spice up your life, as the saying goes."

"And now you're giving life advice. Did you suddenly go through some life-changing moment that I don't know about?"

"Maybe. But I'm a ninja, and a pretty high class one at that. I can't tell you all my secrets."

"You're being pretty chatty right now, aren't you?"

Kakashi gaped at himself. He had never been one for long conversations and Sakura had just managed to get him into a rather circular, but conversational exchange of words. As Kakashi sat up the next morning and his mind flowed through his dream he had one particular thought.

His life was over.

* * *

><p>Sakura can't say that she really remembers all her dreams. Most times she cannot recall a single thing, but when she does dream something, it really sticks with her. She carries it with her for the rest of the day.<p>

That night she dreams of work—or to be more precise work in the hospital. She walks through long halls seeing patient after patient. Quietly humming to herself, she walks at a brisk pace to her next appointment. She had almost seen all her patients; however, she had one more left.

She opens a door at the end of a hallway and goes inside with a bright smile on her face only to see Kakashi sitting on the examination table. He is wearing a thin paper gown and a lollipop is in his mouth.

He removes the lollipop with a loud pop-and that's when Sakura realizes that he was not wearing a mask.

"I'm ready for my check up, Dr. Haruno."

Sakura sat up in her bed gasping for air and wondering what _that_ was all about.

* * *

><p>Naruto appears suddenly when Kakashi is just sitting down for breakfast. His head raises slowly and his brow arches inquisitively.<p>

"Kaka-sensei! I already told the Hokage that the only path that I can possibly take to preserve my manly image is to sit this mission out. So, I'm not going to be going on that girly-dancing mission with you! Okay, bye!"

Kakashi just stares at the space Naruto's face and had been hovering in his window and chews his breakfast slowly. He nods to the empty space and keeps eating. When he finishes, he goes to find a spare shirt to bring to the training grounds in case Sakura rips his shirt sleeve _again_.

Putting the second book he had purchased last night in his hip pouch, Kakashi heads out of his house with a queasy feeling in his gut.

And then there were three.

* * *

><p>Sakura arrives first, as is expected, and she has already brought out her fan and is warming up.<p>

Kakashi leans against the fence, and quietly watches.

"Is this some sort of pay-back for how I was staring at you that one time _you_ were practicing? Returning the favor? Or is this a growing vendetta that I would be aware of? Is this revenge of some genus or species…or something?"

"No?"

Sakura grimaces at him, but Kakashi can tell it's really a smile turned upside down. At least, he hopes it is.

She gestures and he makes his way over carefully.

"Dance with me." She commands, and Kakashi just stands and stares for a moment. The morning sun is covered by clouds and the sky is a pale gray. Everything looks rather washed out and plain. Sakura looks terribly colorful. Pink hair tied away from a swan-thin neck and leaf green eyes so deep he thinks he's going to fall right in. And from which he would (could) never surface from.

Kakashi takes a breath, and steels himself. He smiles from behind his mask. He hopes that she can tell he's smiling at her.

"Just as a warm-up, yes?"

Her eyes appraise him like a piece of merchandise, before they soften. She laughs with her head thrown back, and he finds his eyes are drawn back to the curve of her jaw and the sweet line of her cheek.

"Are you scared I'll be better than you?

Kakashi laughs this time and it feels good. This easy exchange of words and this comforting feeling settling between them is justso simple. It's nice. It's like a warm scarf wrapping around him against early morning chill. It's just the two of them standing in a field, full of grass and rocks. The sound of ringing metal and shouts comes to them from another training field and they begin to move.

It's easy.

* * *

><p>Somehow, they transition from just easy movements to their practiced choreography without a word.<p>

They're moving together and it's just the sound of breathing and heavy steps and bells in their training ground.

All is quiet and they dance away the morning. They call it a day late in the afternoon, and Sakura says that she has to go to the hospital tomorrow morning. He nods and they go their separate ways.

How can this be so easy?

* * *

><p>Kakashi curls up in his bed after a cold, cold shower and cracks open the second book.<p>

* * *

><p>Sakura lies in her bed wondering about her sudden insomnia. There was no denying that she had just gone through a workout that should have wiped her out, yet her mind is racing a mile a minute. The current suspects are how well the day had gone, and how much fun she had had. Those are two very evil and devious characters in the life of a shinobi.<p>

The preparations for this particular mission were awfully enjoyable. It was something different from the norm and she has to admit she loves breaking up the monotony. And chances to tease her former sensei are not to be passed up.

More than anything she appreciates that he is more than capable of giving as well as he got. She has never seen this side of Hatake Kakashi before, and she thinks she likes it. The feeling of discovery, the fun she has just being around another person just as dedicated as she is to a shared profession. Sometimes, she catches herself wondering if she is the only one who gets to see this side of him. But those were just fleeting thoughts that never really settled anywhere. A smile forms on her lips, but slowly fades away as she remembers she has to work the next day.

Sakura doesn't know what this means.

Why would she suddenly be so disappointed? She loved her job at the hospital. Her mind flits around trying to find an answer to the question but sleep eventually claims her before she can find the answer that she's searching for.

* * *

><p>Sakura's shift is almost over when a sense of déjà vu washes over her.<p>

She has one more patient to see and the little ditty that she was humming in her dream pops up in her mind. Soon, she realizes that the humming isn't coming from her mind; however, it _is_ coming from someone who is leaning against the wall with an unfamiliar book in his hand.

Her feet carry her over to him and she wonders at his sudden appearance, and whether or not he's hiding a lollipop somewhere on his person. Sakura approaches warily with careful steps. Kakashi arches a brow at her sudden change of mood. Sakura was usually a very level headed person.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asks cautiously, "And where have you heard that tune?"

Kakashi shrugs his shoulders, closes his book, and puts it away.

"Are you almost done?"

Sakura nods. She finds herself pushing stray strands of hair behind her ear. She tries not to fidget but doesn't know why she would in the first place. After all, it's only Kakashi.

Still, the compulsion is there, so she folds her arms across her chest, and waits for Kakashi to say _something_. She doesn't realize when it started, but her foot begins to tap.

She is not irritated.

She is unnerved. Her heart is beating a mile a minute. She tries to quiet it down, but her heart simply doesn't want to listen. She grimaces at how her body is betraying her.

"I'll wait for you."

Sakura wants to ask why, but she feels it's for the best if she didn't. It feels like she has something fragile in her hands. She wants so desperately to keep it safe, whatever it is. So she nods but doesn't smile. Walking away in her best 'sophisticated walk', Sakura goes to see her last patient of the day.

When she reaches the room of her final patient, she realizes that she used to practice that walk for the day she met someone...special.

* * *

><p>Sakura walks towards him like she's frightened of what he might do. Kakashi sneaks a peak at her ankles from over the top of his book. They really are rather delicate looking.<p>

She sits next to him on the bench in front of the hospital and lets out a breath like she had been holding it for a long time.

"So what were you going to say?" She looked nervous.

"Let's practice of course. You're only at the hospital for this morning, right? We leave in two weeks, and I think we could still put some more work into our choreography. We should totally go all out on this."

She looks at him with wide-eyes and suddenly looks down at her knees. Kakashi gets the feeling he probably should have been saying something else, but he wasn't really sure what that something else was supposed to be.

* * *

><p>It's Sasuke who starts it back up, the mission-impossible task of finding what's under Kakashi's mask.<p>

It's a quiet night, and they're eating out. Sakura is planning to set her evil mooching ways into action.

"Ask him to take off his mask. He looks ridiculous when he's shirtless with a mask. I mean, it goes all the way down to his chest, pretty much covering all of his neck."

Sasuke had only been to the training grounds once. He had sat and watched as the two of them move around each other warily. It was not the dance that he had been briefed on by the mission report. Sasuke was not pleased.

Sakura looks at him quizzically, before she giggles loudly into her ramen. She can't quite tell if it's hysteria, or the dead serious look on Sasuke's face.

Naruto shrieks.

"You! You laughed! It's been so longed since you've laughed. It's been exactly two days. You laughed! Teme made you laugh! Good job, Teme. Now you can go home."

Sasuke makes a scrunched up face at Naruto; Naruto sticks out his tongue and makes a funny face right back, and Sakura smiles fondly at both of them.

It gets late and Sakura goes home from the much-beloved-ramen-stand-of-Konoha. She sips some tea, and changes for bed feeling as good as she's felt in days. Better even, because now she has a plan. Okay, so maybe Kakashi didn't quite know what she meant when she asked him straight up about what things were left unsaid between them. But he'll know soon enough. Maybe everything will be set before they have to leave.

Maybe Sasuke wasn't as bad as she thought. Maybe.

* * *

><p>So maybe (just maybe) she should listen to Sasuke and bring up the old what's-going-on-under-there conversation with Kakashi. But her reasons were different, of that much she was certain.<p>

Truthfully, she thought Kakashi looked uncomfortable with the mask on and the rest of his torso bare. As they hard as they've been working, he should at least be comfortable. Innocuously enough, she makes the suggestion the next day on the training grounds.

"Why don't you take your mask off? You have to be uncomfortable with it on."

It doesn't even take a second for Kakashi to begin to send suspicious looks her way, which causes her to roll her eyes.

"Oh, please. No one is trying to figure out what you look like. You'll be more comfortable with it off. Besides, you weren't planning on wearing it on the mission were you? It's like a big, red flag shouting to the world that 'you are dangerous'."

"You think my mask makes me look dangerous?"

There's a devil's dance flickering in his single eye, and Sakura can't help but feel a flutter in her heart. It'll complicate things, these things she feels. But she's stuck in this grave she has dug for herself. And it's funny only because she walked right into this pit, knowing exactly where it was and how it got there.

Her heart aches at the thought. She could only hope that the grave didn't get any deeper or wider. And what makes this all even _more_ hilarious is that she's currently having an internal battle with herself using death as an analogy for love. This is what's happened to her. What happened to the badass that stomped onto the training ground not even a couple of days ago?

(Well, see, this girl walked into her own grave, and…)

"Do you really expect me to answer that?"

Kakashi pantomimes deep thought for the briefest of seconds.

"Yep."

Sakura laughs but does not speak. She is caught up in that moment of merriment when she suddenly realized that Kakashi was looming over her. His face was one big question, like he couldn't even remember moving so quickly to stand before her. A sharp intake of breath slices through the quiet of the air between the two of them, and Sakura can't register if it was her own lungs drawing air.

She wonders what he's thinking.

She thinks about how close he is and how her world has suddenly gotten about a thousand degrees hotter. There is a warmth gathering in her gut.

She thinks that she likes when his whole attention is focused on her. She wishes more than anything that the smile that she knows that is hidden behind his mask was hers (and hers alone) to admire.

But it wasn't just about seeing his face. It wasn't about solving the mystery that was Hatake Kakashi, master of a thousand jutsu.

Sakura just wanted a chance to know all of him. To know who he was before she met him, and she wanted to see who he could be if she was by his side. She…wanted to be able to love him as a whole. These bits and pieces of him she saw, they weren't satisfying. It was easy to admire the strong leader figure he cut, and it was hard not to grow fond of his ridiculous excuses. It wasn't even a challenge to fall into an easy battle of words with the Copy Ninja. She just wanted to know more.

She wanted a chance.

(Her grave just dug itself another couple of feet into the ground.)

Sakura slowly shakes her head at her sudden burst of sentimentality and then looks up once again to find that his expression has changed.

A little disappointed, a lot heartbroken, Kakashi slowly stepped back until there was an acceptable distance between them.

"Do you want to finish up early today? We've been working hard this morning, so I think we deserve the break."

Sakura can only nod numbly.

What had she done?

And then it hits her like a shovel full of dirt. She had shaken her head. It had looked like a rejection. That one moment when she had shaken her head to clear her thoughts had seemed like a simple, quiet way of saying no. But it had been anything but an emphatic _no_.

His departure was sudden, and then there was just a girl standing among the trees and the stones.

* * *

><p>They still dance. How can they not?<p>

Sasuke comes to practice his act with them a few times and Kakashi can't help but feel like despite their mission just being an act, their whole lives are just an act. There is seeing underneath the underneath, and then there is just a hollow hole in the ground covered by a tarp. This was the latter of the two examples. His own forced cheerfulness, Sasuke's mask of indifference and Sakura's sudden quietness settles across the training field like a fog. It bogs them down, makes them miss steps, and forces Sasuke's voice to travel through the air in strained monotones instead of enthusiastic exclamations.

After all, Sasuke was to be an agent, advertising his amazing dancers.

Kakashi sits under a tree, reading. It's been two weeks. One more week left. The first week had been enjoyable. The second week had been so many different levels of strained and awkward. The third week had just begun.

There wasn't much to say.

He reads and reads and he gives himself a slight headache.

"You haven't eaten today." A shadow says. It's the first words she has said to him today aside from 'good morning' and 'am I doing this right'.

Sakura plops down to take a seat next to him and places her lunch between them. She takes out an apple and chews thoughtfully.

"You should take off your mask."

"Why?" He asks. His eyes are drawn to her fingers and the way they seem to clutch at the apple as if it were a life preserve. There are bruises forming on the apples red, red skin.

"Because I said so."

"What if I told you that was a child's answer?"

"I would reply that children are sometimes the most observant and honest."

"What if I told you that at one time I knew a child who spray painted each of the Hokage heads a different color of the rainbow?"

"I would ask how many Hokages there were at the time."

"Four."

"Well, that would narrow down the suspects to…the last generation."

"But no, I'm not taking off my mask."

The conversation loops around in circles and it might as well be coiling its length around the two people sitting under a tree and drawing them closer and closer.

* * *

><p>He wants to know her better. Not just so that he can know more about her life, but to <em>know<em> who she is. What she thinks and feels and makes of different situations. He wants to know all that.

And what he likes best about her isn't just that she's a beautiful girl with a big heart and a soul that's just so damn kind. He likes that she doesn't need him.

He likes knowing that if he had to die, she would still be over at his apartment (assuming she might move in with him? With a girl like her, he could never know) dusting his bookshelves. And that wouldn't be because she was insensitive to his passing, but because she was cherishing what he loved in life and celebrating what he had offered to share with her. His love of life, not his porn stash, but that might be worth sharing too.

But those are just thoughts that flit through his brain like crazy chickens. She obviously isn't interested, even as she sits under a tree and shares her lunch with him.

She is sharing words that she hadn't offered him in almost seven days.

He has been starving.

* * *

><p>Kakashi had just gotten out of a bubble bath and all his laundry was going through the spin cycle. He had been making some soup for dinner and he had just about finished that second book he had bought. It wasn't sacrilege to not read Icha Icha once in a blue moon.<p>

He had just been absent-mindedly throwing in some carrots into said soup when someone knocked on his door.

To his everlasting shame, Kakashi will have to admit that while footsteps up the stairs of his building had alerted him to a passerby, he had not been expecting someone to walk up to _his_ door. He had been expecting his neighbor to have a visitor or something, and that was the reason his book flew into the air in a graceful arc and landed in his vegetable soup with a gentle splash.

Kakashi fished it out with a pair of chopsticks before going to answer the door.

"Hey, I was…Is this the residence of Hatake Kakashi?"

"Uh…yeah. Sakura?"

"What. The. Hell. Why do you look so normal?"

"Because I am?"

"Don't answer my question with a question! I was just thinking that since you hadn't been eating lunch, that you had been too lazy to go and shop for food and that I would offer some take-out just in case you were like starving or being moronic about feeding yourself. No, ration packs are not _real _food and you need things that have carotene and color and green things."

Kakashi just looked at Sakura standing in his doorway with a bag of warm food just for him and a frazzled smile with her pink hair flying around in the wind.

He doesn't kiss her, because that only happens in romance novels (and that one really bad book he bought that other day). But he does invite her in.

And for some reason she blurts out that she really wants to get to know him just after he closes his door. All of him and everything about him, but not about him like what he did, but him like whom he _is_. And her words wash over him and he's suddenly laughing and she is staring.

And he tells her everything (that doesn't happen in pulp fiction too often does it?). And she returns the favor. And it's all over take-out and paper-back soup that Sakura gives exaggerated compliments to in her best snotty façade.

And it's easy. Because it wasn't _that_ difficult (but don't tell anyone about all that other really challenging stuff).


End file.
